To cure Ciel before the poison took her life, she needed a remedy that her friends intended to procure no matter the cost. Since the assassins applied the poison, it would be in their best interest to hamper the remedy’s creation. Therefore, Viers was mentally prepared for the assassins to hound every step of the journey to the unpleasant swamp.

But the Church’s people circumvented the problem using a smart method.

Somewhere inside the Foulfae Swamp, people appeared after bending the rules of space. They appeared with their weapons drawn, on high alert.

“Clear!” Damon said.

“Clear,” several others said the same.

“Nice. I can get used to this.” Viers liked the fast travel feature.

This morning, Mita disclosed that the day off was to give the magic item time to accumulate energy for the teleportation. Valkut’s barrier prevented anyone from teleporting out but teleportation inside the barrier was completely fine. The party cut down the travel time significantly.

The group consisted of Damon and his group minus Ciel, Mita plus her three wards, and lastly, Viers. Nine people. Unem stayed behind to protect Ciel and the church compound in case the assassins felt bold and launched an attack. With their home base advantage and on full alert, repelling the assassins shouldn't be hard.

Mist floated around them, dead trees were plentiful, and wet puddles were as common as dirt. Despite the sunny weather, the swamp seemed murky. Their sudden appearance startled some crows which flew while cawing.

“Viers, if you may,” Mita said.

“Got it.”

Viers pressed his palm on the grass near his feet and shut his eyes, expanding his sixth sense.

“...I can feel a powerful soul reeking of death, deep inside the swamp. Must be our death-defying necro. Hard to pinpoint its location from this distance but I can sense the general position.”

“Problem?” Rose asked.

“Not at the moment. It’s very far away. I’ll keep you all informed. I’ll do my job as the detector.”

Since Viers said that and they confirmed there were no hostiles with their own eyes, even these battle veterans’ alertness went down to a degree.

The first to realize was Mita, then Viers with his soul sense.

A warp in the air and a rotting figure appeared behind Rachel.

“Fresh life! Kakakaka!”

The voice was akin to the clatter of bones mixed with the coarseness of rough sand. The consciousness behind the voice had very little sanity if any.

Rachel felt goosebumps from the threat to her life and activated her Unreality Field for protection from hostile forces.

The former man with tattered clothes and decaying body had its skeletal left hand on Rachel’s nape. Mist-like white streams started to flow from Rachel to the undead. Viers recognized the common but deadly necromantic art, Life Drain.

Rachel’s expression did not have the time to convey the pain she felt before Mita separated the two and thus saved her life. A flash of light interrupted the revenant’s feeding time.

The Unreality Field and anti-undead preparations had reduced the power of the malicious attack significantly. Be that as it may, Rachel was subject to Life Drain for one second. At two, the first sound of her pain left her mouth. If Mita didn't separate them, she would have died at three.

Viers, more surprised than anyone, didn't freeze and simply acted. While Mita was tussling with the undead, he was doing what they needed him to do, disrupting and attacking the undead’s soul.

Among Viers’ enemies thus far, its soul was the strongest because it had eaten many other souls. Viers was weaker compared to the Rank 4 monster but his advantage was that his soul mastery eclipsed the undead’s. Viers managed to influence the undead slightly, giving Mita an easier time.

“Rachel–!!”

Her teammates showed concern. She was in too much pain to stay standing and had fallen to the ground but she was a member of the Silver Legion, an elite. They were still in combat so rather than voicing her answer, she took out a wooden stake from her inventory item and stabbed it to the ground.

Her companions that had gone through fire and water together understood the unsaid message: “I’m okay! Focus on the plan.”

Damon, Bryan, and Wendy moved to surround the undead while Mita and Viers tried to keep it from moving away. Using Rachel’s stake as the first point, the other three put down wooden stakes enchanted with holy inscriptions, completing a square albeit a little skewed.

Meanwhile, the remaining three moved closer to the fallen Rachel. Rose was in the middle of casting an Arte, June readied her bow for new outside threats, and Conn would act as a meatshield if need be. Direct combat was too dangerous with their current power level so they dutifully played the supporting role rather than making things worse.

The frame was set, then Mita provided the power.

“Ixi Arte - Consecrated Ground!”

While the four stakes were in the ground, the area inside the boundary began to hurt the undead as well as apply various detrimental effects. For it, the ground was suddenly turned to lava.

The dead thing wailed like a male banshee. Viers and the others fortified their minds so they wouldn't be affected. It tried to run away but a forcefield made it bounce back. The humanoid monster’s expression, despite being dead, became even more twisted. From its chest, that was missing some of its flesh, flew out gray balls of death energy, homing in at every living being in the area.

“Arte - Guardians of Faith!”

Damon stomped his foot on the ground. An ethereal shield-wielding warrior appeared before Viers and the others to defend against them. Some still got through after tearing the guardians but the others did something about it on their own.

“Arte - Multi Spiral Shot!”

June hit the undead with four arrows while Conn punched the gray projectiles using his gauntlets, protecting June, Rose, and Rachel nearby.

Viers saw that Rose’s casting was almost finished using his peripheral vision.

“Dia, give her a hand.”

A streak of light shot out from the green badge on Viers’ chest.

“Ooo!”

Mini-Dia landed on Rose’s head and the two collaborated on the casting.

“Twin Polar Swords Rumble!” Bryan released fast consecutive slashes.

The others attacked the undead while keeping their stake safe. Mita was crucial in containing its rampage. After eating some good hits, the deranged undead who was more animal than human seemed to realize that Viers was the one that prevented it from gaining strength from the lay of the land using his soul method. It went to all fours, defying how joints were supposed to work, and crawled with even more speed at Viers, slipping through Mita’s defensive line.

Viers had both of his hands touching the ground, cutting off the dark energy from the land that was supposed to empower the undead. But despite not being able to use both of his hands, Viers was not helpless.

“Paina!”

In the real world, Viers inhaled deeply. In the soul space, Paina had her lips on her flute.

“Ready!”

Fus Ro-

“-DAH!!!”

A cone of force was spreading out in front of Viers. The undead was like a human hit by a suddenly appearing bulldozer. Its momentum stopped when hitting the holy forcefield, which gave the undead further damage. Even more of its rotten flesh fell off from the battle, exposing the bones.

“Dah! Dah! Daaah!”

Viers shouted three more times, hitting the undead that already had its back to the wall until he saw cracks forming on the yellow translucent barrier.

“Stop!” Mita said. Viers didn't need to be told. “Can you do it still?”

“Yes,” Viers replied with a hoarse voice.

“With me.”

Viers didn't understand at first but when the undead angrily charged at him, Viers backed away. Behind the undead, he saw Mita, a bell in her hand. That was when it clicked for Viers.

Arte - Force Speak!

Fus Ro-

“-DAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Viers and Paina put their full power in this one. On the other side, there was a clear ring of a bell. Mita also used a similar technique to Viers. When the two Artes clashed, there was the sound of a hundred dynamites blowing up.

It was like two people were swinging two gigantic hammers and the undead was caught in the middle.

It wasn't yet dead.

Ordinary bones would have turned into fine dust after the combined attack but the undead was only temporarily stopped in its tracks; there was still unholy life no matter how broken the body seemed to be.

But it was fine. Viers wasn't supposed to be the one dealing the finishing blow.

Beside Rose, a plant had been growing since she started casting. It had reached three meters in height and was in full bloom. The stem was thick to support the sunflower lookalike’s massive petals.

“Arte - Sunlight Bloom!!”

It was actually a biological cannon in the shape of a flower that shot a strong beam of light. Rose and Dia had filled the Arte with so much power it was overflowing.

Light, heat, and something else mixed in; elements that the undead didn't like. Mita said that Rose would play a crucial role during the fight against the undead. Viers could now confirm it was true.

Or should I say, as expected of an angel-blessed.

Even against a higher Level opponent, Rose’s Arte would deal very heavy damage.

While the beam wasn't traveling at the speed of light, it would engulf the stunned undead in moments. Viers would love for it to be over; his throat was getting really sore from the continuous shouting.

Before Rose’s finishing strike struck, the living corpse managed to evade it.

By teleporting.

What the shit!

Viers didn't see how the undead arrived in the first place but he witnessed how it got away. There was a split second of a glowing rune and then-

It Disapparated! Are you kidding me?

He spent a lot of Victa during the fight and had nothing to show for it. If he was lucky, he hoped to get a Level 4 soul but now the loot had run away.

Rose’s attack missed its mark and pierced through the forcefield, mightily exploding some distance away. With the exception of Mita, everyone did not anticipate this outcome.

Viers immediately pressed his hand to the ground once again, using his soul radar. The undead’s soul signal was once again far away.

But everyone was still feeling the adrenaline rush.

Bryan put Viers at swordpoint, which Viers didn't appreciate very much so did the same thing.

“Wha-?” Rose was surprised.

“Explain!” Bryan demanded. “Rachel almost died!”

Viers didn't say anything. His throat was too sore from using the Force Speak Arte five times and he got better use of his breath than replying to the hot-head. His eyes, however, conveyed his displeasure.

Wendy and Damon also pointed their weapon at Viers from different angles. In response, Viers conjured a soul sword in his free hand, directing it at Damon’s face.

“Wait, seniors-” June tried to mediate.

“Kin!”

Sensing the hostility, Dia commanded the plant roots to rise to the surface and pointed the sharp ends at the Silver Legionaries. The flora all around them seemed to come alive and show hostility.

Not only that, Farley manifested behind Bryan. Her spear-wielding hand threatened to make a hole on Bryan’s back while her other hand molded an Arte at Rachel.

Damon and the others split their attention to the new arrivals.

Somehow, Viers recalled the third movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean, the scene after Jack Sparrow was rescued from Davy Jones' Locker.

Similar to the pirate captain, he too was in a bona fide Mexican standoff.